Waste Watch - July 2010

This Alert contains brief details of recent Government and EU publications, legislation, cases and other developments in England and Wales relevant to those interested in municipal waste management, which have been published inJuly 2010.

This Alert contains brief details of recent Government and EU
publications, legislation, cases and other developments in England
and Wales relevant to those interested in municipal waste
management, which have been published in the past month.

Items are set out by subject, with a link to where the full
document can be found on the internet. All links are correct at the
date of publication.

If you have been forwarded this update by a colleague and would
like to receive it direct please email
Claire Booth.

DEFRA: New Animal By-products (Enforcement)
Regulations 2011: seeks views on proposed new regulations that
will revoke and replace SI 2005/2347 and provide powers to enforce
the requirements of the new EU Animal By Products Regulation
1069/2009, which lays down health rules for the disposal of animal
by-products not intended for human consumption. Comments are
required by 10 September 2010.

LGA: Less than eight years of landfill space left, warn
council leaders: the LGA has released details of research which
shows that households in the UK send more than 18.8m tonnes of
rubbish to landfill every year – 2m more tonnes than any other
country in the European Union. It states that the findings show
that Britain will run out of landfill space in less than eight
years' time unless recycling rates are boosted and the amount of
rubbish dumped in the ground is reduced. (8 July 2010)

National Assembly: AMs say yes to proposed new
green law that aims to help turn Wales into zero-waste country by
2050: the National Assembly’s Legislation Committee have
supported in principle the Waste (Wales) Measure that aims to
reduce the amount of waste and litter in Wales by establishing
statutory targets for the percentage of waste to be recycled by
each local council. The proposed Measure will also allow Welsh
Ministers to require Welsh retailers to pass on the proceeds of a
charge on plastic bags to worthwhile projects, and will give the
Welsh Ministers power to ban or restrict the deposit of specified
kinds of waste in a landfill in Wales. Its recommendations include
that the Minister considers setting separate targets for waste
minimisation, in order to balance any distorting effect of the
statutory recycling targets on the waste hierarchy, and that the
Measure be amended to allow two or more local authorities to work
collaboratively in meeting the new statutory waste targets by
pooling their individual targets. See also the Legislative Committee's report. (28 June 2010)

DEFRA: Localism Bill to be used to end trial
‘pay-as-you-throw’ schemes: announces that the Government
intends to include provisions in the Localism Bill, to be
introduced into Parliament this Autumn, amending the Climate Change
Act 2008 to remove the powers that allow local authorities to pilot
waste reduction schemes, including charging householders based on
how much they throw away. The changes will also make it
easier for local authorities to bring in schemes to reward people
who produce less waste. The Government considers that decisions on
any reward schemes are best made by councils in consultation with
local residents and with careful consideration of value for money.
The Environment Secretary has also announced that DEFRA will not be
further considering Bristol City Council’s current proposal to
pilot a waste reduction scheme under the Climate Change Act. (16
July 2010)

a legal obligation for those producing waste (other than
householders) to deal with their waste in the best way possible for
the environment wherever practical, following the waste hierarchy
by prioritising actions to prevent waste in the first place; then
preparing any waste for re-use; recycling it; using other types of
recovery such as energy from waste; and if all else fails disposing
of it;

a statutory target to recycle 50% of waste from households by
2020;

a statutory target to recover 70% of construction and
demolition waste by 2020; and

The revised WFD also requires Member
States to encourage the separate collection of bio-waste. DEFRA is
not proposing any additional measures on this in the draft
regulations. Guidance is already available to local authorities and
the proposals in the consultation do not change existing bio-waste
policy. The Directive also includes a definition of the term
‘recycling’ for the purpose of setting and meeting targets.
DEFRA and the Devolved Administrations are reviewing which
reprocessing techniques should be termed ‘recycling’, in order to
ensure a UK-wide approach.
The consultation closes on 16 September 2010. The consultation web
page includes a summary of key issues, draft regulations for
England and Wales, and draft guidance for England on the
application of the waste hierarchy. (8 July 2010)

DEFRA: Review of waste policy: seeks views
to inform the Review of all aspects of waste policy and
delivery in England. The Review's main aim is to ensure that
the Government is taking the right steps towards creating a
‘zero waste’ economy, where resources are fully valued, and nothing
of value gets thrown away. Comments are required by 9
September 2010. The formal Call for Evidence will close on 7
October 2010, and the early results of the Review will be made
available in Spring 2011. For the full Terms of Reference, see the
Call for Evidence. (29 July 2010)

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The information on this website is of general interest about current legal issues and is not intended to apply to specific circumstances. It should not, therefore, be regarded as constituting legal advice.